Proabably a better investment for Heineken that UK treasury stock right now.

Heineken seem to have a policy of maintaining local brands. I noticed this in France years ago - but they also have Newcastle Brown here.
The Heineken website makes much of their unique keg system. Will Brixton Brewery be a keg or real ale affair? Makes you wonder. Plus the tweet below.

Proabably a better investment for Heineken that UK treasury stock right now.

Heineken seem to have a policy of maintaining local brands. I noticed this in France years ago - but they also have Newcastle Brown here.
The Heineken website makes much of their unique keg system. Will Brixton Brewery be a keg or real ale affair? Makes you wonder. Plus the tweet below.

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Although their initial approach to Camden was as investor and look what happened there. They also swallowed up Lagunitas IIRC. A lot of small "craft" breweries are being subsumed into the behemoth.

I think this leaves the London Beer Lab as the only true independent brewery left in the middle of Brixton.

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TBF Beer Lab and Bullfinch are the most technically proficient of our local breweries, but lack the branding of Brixton which i imagine is what makes it so desirable to a multinational. I really hope those two can stay under the radar and keep independent.

TBF Beer Lab and Bullfinch are the most technically proficient of our local breweries, but lack the branding of Brixton which i imagine is what makes it so desirable to a multinational. I really hope those two can stay under the radar and keep independent.

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The Beer Lab were very helpful when we brewed our Coldharbour Courage ale. When the Brewery came along they said they'd help us out too, but then swiftly declared themselves 'too busy,' which was disappointing.

The Beer Lab were very helpful when we brewed our Coldharbour Courage ale. When the Brewery came along they said they'd help us out too, but then swiftly declared themselves 'too busy,' which was disappointing.

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Beer lab is great, really nice guys.

The above is probably great news for the quality of Brixton breweries beers, Heineken will have top quality gear and resource to fix any quality issues.

Although their initial approach to Camden was as investor and look what happened there. They also swallowed up Lagunitas IIRC. A lot of small "craft" breweries are being subsumed into the behemoth.

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Same old same old, though. This cycle of local breweries being absorbed by giants happened between the 1950s and 1970s, too. Don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember the consequences of that - good beers re-formulated for keg, that tasted bland and boring, if not actively rancid. Here's hoping that some of the small local breweries hold onto their independence!

Same old same old, though. This cycle of local breweries being absorbed by giants happened between the 1950s and 1970s, too. Don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember the consequences of that - good beers re-formulated for keg, that tasted bland and boring, if not actively rancid. Here's hoping that some of the small local breweries hold onto their independence!

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To be fair that was in a period of time when most other beer was also pretty shit, I’m sure if Brixton becomes carling no matter who owns it - it’ll disappear.

Hi all, thanks for your interest in our news, we're very excited to build a new brewery in Brixton. We've been running at full capacity for about a year and moving away from Brixton is unthinkable for us. Staying the same size isn't really a long term option either, our brew length(1000 litres) means our beer is getting expensive vs our peers who have been able to fit bigger equipment in and reduce marginal costs. We simply can't as the archways are too small.

Obviously the timing of running out of capacity in the arches, the new much larger unit becoming available and Heineken getting in touch with us and believing in our ambitious plans is incredibly fortunate and their investment has made them a reality.

We're excited to brew on a larger scale(5000ltrs) using better equipment that'll give us greater control over the process. Our team are already well trained(GCB and IBD Diploma level) and our beer will definitely change, and we firmly believe for the better. We'll mill our own malt, use steam to heat, whirlpool our hops and get a rotary canning line all of which will help produce top quality beer in package.

This is our brewery and we've selected all the equipment ourselves and our team can't wait to brew on it. We retain full control over the brewery and the beer we produce. We also plan to brew more cask(real ale) which we've had to cut back on significantly due to low margins in the cask market and lack of economies of scale we currently have.

We can't wait to open the new brewery next spring and then build a more comfortable tap-room to enjoy our beers in our current brewery. We'll continue brewing there making more experimental small batch beers(like our recent Nuclear Dawn Botanical Sour) and also plan to make the space available for community groups to use.

If you've got any questions I'd be happy to answer them on here; alternatively I'll be at our Xmas party on Sat 16th along with the other founders(Libby, Mike + Xochitl) and we'd be very happy to tell you more in person, over a beer.

Let's put it this way: do you think the biggest brewers in Britain always produce the best beer?

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I’m sure by a lot of technical measures, yes.

Bigger means money for quality control, money for lab gear and lab people ( how brewers test and manage consistency across time ), money so don’t have to sell every drop of beer (ie you can afford to throw bad beer away), money so you can invest in higher quality distribution so what arrives in pubs is similar quality to what leaves the brewery

From the perspective of the punter this means the beer (much) is more likely to taste and look in our pint how the brewer wants it to taste or look.

While carling and fosters might not be to my or your taste I’d bet it tastes exactly how the person putting it together wants it to, and I bet it’s a whole load more consistent than most craft beer ( including 7 pound 20 craft cans ).

When is craft beer no longer craft beer - when it's get bought out by a mega brewery and sold in supermarkets

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According to the American Brewing Association who may perhaps have originated the term, it is when a brewer in more than 25% owned by a brewer which is not itself a craft brewer What is a Craft Brewery? | CraftBeer.com

I always thought that Craft brewed ale had distinctive hop flavours, whether it be cask real ale or any other format. So I would have ruled out Abbot or Ruddles for example - even though they are clearly usually in real ale format.